Ban on evictions needs to balance rights of landlords and tenants, Varadkar says

Rights of people who own property will have to be balanced against the need to protect those who would otherwise have nowhere else to live from eviction, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

The comments come as the Government faces a decision about the potential extension of a ban on evictions due to lapse at the end of this month, and after Green Party backbenchers urged its renewal.

Mr Varadkar said the Cabinet would decide on the issue on Tuesday, though the crucial meeting of the three Coalition party leaders is expected later on Monday evening.

Speaking to journalists in Waterford, Mr Varadkar said the Cabinet would “have to weigh up the pros and cons”.

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“I think anyone who’s been following this debate understands that it’s not a black and white decision. There are pros and cons. We have to weigh that up, and Cabinet will make a decision in the morning,” he said.

“It’s a balance of a number of different rights,” Mr Varadkar said. “So one of the things that we’re facing at the moment, which is a real difficulty, is people coming home from abroad. Thirty-thousand people come home from abroad every year – some of them own houses and apartments and are not able to move back into them. People who have bought an apartment or a house for their kids to use when they go to college – not being able to access them is an issue for property owners.

[ ‘Extending the eviction ban is a doomsday scenario for me’: Renters and landlords on the ban ]

“Obviously there’s the very serious issue of rising homelessness and people being evicted from private rented accommodation and not being able to find somewhere. And there’s also the issue for renters as well, because one of the concerns that we have is that if landlords continue to leave the market and new landlords don’t come in, rents will go up higher.

“So we have to consider the rights of renters, the rights of tenants, and also not so much the rights of landlords, but the rights of people to move into their own home and move their kids into property that they own.”

Mr Varadkar added there were “a number of options, and I think because everyone understands there are pros and cons here and no matter what we do, it’ll have both positive and negative effects. So we have to make the decision in the interests of the wider common good and public good”.

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said the Government was anxious to stem the flight of landlords from the sector, which was reducing supply and pushing up prices for rented accommodation.

[ Landlords will ‘not stand idly by’ if eviction ban is extended ]

He said the Government had strengthened tenants’ rights considerably in recent years but that “decisions that we make into the future have to take into account the fact that we’ve seen for a number of years a significant amount of individual landlords leave the market. So as the Taoiseach has said, it’s a complex issue. Anything we do and a decision we take will have to be carefully calibrated to make sure we’re not seeing a decrease in supply in that sector.”

Green Party TDs have pushed back against an ending of the eviction ban, with Dublin Central TD Neasa Hourigan telling RTÉ this morning that she favoured retention of the measure. She conceded, however, that there could be a case for allowing some evictions where owners needed the property for personal use.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin said the three Coalition leaders were facing a “challenging decision” in relation to the question of an extension.

Speaking during a visit to the Naval Base in Haulbowline, Co Cork, the Tánaiste said a decision had yet to be made on the matter.

“It is difficult because on the one hand we want to maintain a steady supply to the rental market. The situation has been that over the last number of years there has been a significant exit from the rental market. We don’t want to make that situation worse. That is a very serious concern.

“As of course is the fact that quite a number of people have received evictions notices. So it is a very challenging decision and we will discuss this again this evening.”

[ Eviction ban extension may make exception for landlords ‘rehoming’ ]

Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane said ending the ban would be “throwing far too many families to the wolves”.

“I don’t buy this notion that it’s not good for the private sector that that the eviction ban would stay in place. And I have had a lot of people on to me genuinely over the last few weeks concerned about the lifting of the eviction ban, because they feel that they could be gone,” he said.

“If we believe in security of tenure, if we believe that we’re in a housing crisis and we want to keep people in their homes and we want to make sure that we don’t have the volatility of people being moved out and looking for alternative accommodation, I think the eviction ban has to stay in place.”

Arguments have raged within the Government over the issue for several weeks. Ministers have been told that ending the ban would have adverse consequences for many tenants, but there is a growing view among some Ministers that the Government will have to bite the bullet on the issue and end the ban sooner or later. However, there was an expectation that the three leaders would agree on Monday evening to continue with the ban in some shape, though not perhaps for the long term.